The Exodus and all that it entailed, from the blood on the doorpost in Egypt to the drama at the Red Sea — what an experience! No doubt it made an impression on those who lived through it. (And those who died, from the first-born children in Egypt to the soldiers at the bottom of the sea, God will judge them fairly.) As the Lord said: “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles´ wings and brought you to Myself” (Exod. 19:4, NKJV).

 Why did the Lord do this stunning and dramatic rescue, actually taking one nation out of another nation, or, as Moses himself said to them: “Or did God ever try to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?” (Deut. 4:34, NKJV)?

 Read Exodus 19:4-8. Why did the Lord call the people out from Egypt?

 It was as simple as that. God called them out, the seed, the descendants of the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And with these descendants the Lord established His covenant, and they would be, indeed, “a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine” (Exod. 19:5, NKJV). This relationship was central to the covenant.

 This idea of a “special treasure” (segullah), however, could be (and it was, in fact) easily miSunderstood. Their specialness came not from anything inherently holy and righteous in and of themselves. Instead, it was because of God´s grace given to them and because of the wonderful truths that He had bestowed upon them — truths that they were to follow and, as a “kingdom of priests,” eventually spread to the world.

 God then gave them some of the stipulations of the covenant, too (their end of the deal, so to speak), the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20), and then this covenant was ratified. Having sprinkled a newly constructed altar with the blood of the offerings, Moses “took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people” (Exod. 24:7). The people again declared that they would obey.